You are here

East County Round-UP

ECM Editor’s note: The CPUC decision leaves the door
open for a southern route to be built, which would impact East County communities
near the border, so stay tuned.

Voice of San Diego (November 1, 2008) — San Diego Gas & Electric's proposed
$1.2 billion Sunrise Powerlink will not be built through Anza-Borrego Desert
State Park.

The California Public Utilities Commission, the state regulatory agency that
decides whether the power line should be built or not, issued draft rulings
Friday that give the five-member commission two options to consider when deciding
the Sunrise Powerlink's fate in December: Don't build it at all, or build it
around the park — on the condition that SDG&E guarantee it delivers renewable
energy to San Diego.

San Diego Union-Tribune (October 25, 2008 ) — Bugs and diseases are
killing trees at an alarming rate across the West, from the spruce forests
of Alaska to the oak woodlands near the San Diego-Tijuana border.

Several scientists
said the growing threat appears linked to global warming. That means tree mortality
is likely to rise in places as the continent warms, potentially altering landscapes
in ways that increase erosion, fan wildfires and diminish the biodiversity
of Western forests.

Only 9 percent of homes that were destroyed in blazes have been
rebuilt

San Diego Union-Tribune (October 21, 2008 ) — Mary
Wagner and her family are among the lucky ones. Although they lost their
home in Rancho Bernardo in the wildfires that started a year ago today,
they navigated insurance claims and building permits with little trouble
and will be moving into a new, bigger house before Christmas.

“We
couldn’t have been more fortunate,” she said. “The
house looks a lot different, but it’s beautiful.”

San Diego Union-Tribune (Sept. 26, 2008) --| For the first
time since 1992, San Diego is facing the possibility of water rationing, a
step that could happen as soon as January. The threat is expected to loom for
years as Southern California readjusts to the tightest drinking water supplies
it has experienced in almost two decades.

The Metropolitan Water District, the
Los Angeles-based wholesaler that provides about 75 percent of San Diego County's
supply, will consider as soon as January whether to cut deliveries to the 13
million people it serves -- including the San Diego County Water Authority,
which provides water to the city of San Diego and 23 other local agencies.

North County Times
(September 20, 2008) -- As San Diego County moves into that scary time of year
when hot, dry winds roar in from the desert and threaten to transform even
the tiniest spark into an inferno, a question lingers: Could another deadly
wildfire strike this fall?

The answer, experts say, is yes.

The disasters of 2003 and 2007 reduced much
of the county to ashes. But two-thirds of the chaparral-carpeted backcountry
remains and would provide plenty of fresh fuel for wind-fanned flames.

California Farm Bureau (September 17, 2008) -- In a move
that will affect crop production across much of the region, the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California plans to end its discount program for
agricultural irrigation water. The move, expected to be approved in October,
will open the door to increased water costs for many Southland farmers…